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In the long history of the catechetical genre, texts originating from the New World occupy an understandably recent portion of the timeline. In this volume, we turn for the first time to the North American continent, reclaiming three successive forms of what came to be known as the "Quebec Catechism"--the most widely used official catechism in the Canadian provinces for nearly three centuries.
The early evangelization of the Americas began in the same century as the Protestant Revolt, the Council of Trent, and major advances in mechanical printing, and it was not long before catechisms began to appear across the oceans. In addition to bringing European catechisms from overseas, members of the various Catholic missionary orders were dedicated to producing instructive works that were adapted to the new circumstances of the foreign missions. Missionary priests especially worked tirelessly, and often in concert with native speakers, to produce multi-language catechisms that could be employed within the far-flung territories in which the gospel was taking root. Considering the many challenges involved, they appeared with amazing rapidity; and in some cases, these books were the first ever printed in their respective languages--if not the first to be printed on the entire continent. Latin, vernacular, bilingual, and even trilingual catechisms were composed for Mexico (1539), India (1546), Japan (1570), Peru (1584), China (1584), Vietnam (1629), and Huronia (1632), to name a few. The latter deserves special mention here, as it was the work of the great Jesuit missionary priest St. Jean de Brebeuf (1593-1649) and forms the historical backdrop for the Canadian catechisms that are contained in this volume.